Traffic was disrupted at the Emerson Manitoba port of entry on Thursday as some Canadian border officers walked off the job in protest of a new Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) policy requiring officers to wear name tags. This follows similar disruptions on Wednesday at the Blue Water Bridge and Ambassador Bridge in Ontario. The policy was put into effect by the CBSA on Tuesday December 11, 2012, and there have been protests each day since then. The CBSA is holding firm on the policy so there is the potential for additional protests and traffic delays in the coming days.

The CBSA argues that this policy simply puts it’s officers in line with the practice followed by the Canadian Forces, Correctional Service of Canada, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection – all of whose front-line uniformed officers wear ID tags. The unionized officers are concerned that wearing a name tag exposes its officers to additional personal risk.

Until this plays out you should keep an eye on the border wait times entering Canada. We have the wait time information for many ports on the pages for each individual port. We will update this post with any new developments so check back if the protests continue.

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